Everyone has their own story...
Just got this e-mail from my Mom. My Uncle Elliott had a friend who e-mailed about his experience in the Superdome in New Orleans. If you're interested, read on. It's a long story but well worth it.
---
I wanted to say a HUGE thanks to all of you who expressed your caring
and concern in so many ways. And to many who I am blind copying who
were not aware I was in New Orleans, I wanted to share my story. I
hope to write more later, but my brain is one big blob of jambalaya.
And if you see me walking around in the daze, it's okay. I'm just
having flashbacks of being inside the Louisiana Superdome. ;-) You
may not care to read further. This is a warning that some of what I
will write is upsetting so stop now if easily offended.
I arrived Fri. 8/26 in New Orleans. On Sun. 8/28 I was awaiting word
from the New Orleans Mayor to see if the city was to be evacuated. The
moment he gave the order I hopped in a cab to go to Amtrak and
Greyhound. The cabbie said it looks like they're closed. I said no
way and had him drop me off. Sure enough both were. (I later learned
that both had closed on Saturday, 2 days before the hurricane. I also
learned that people were flown in to the airport on Saturday but not
informed that there would not be flights for them to leave on after
Saturday.) All rental cars were gone and no hotels or motels seemed to
be open.
I knew the Superdome was available for "special needs" people. This
meant medical needs, but I walked the block or two and spoke to a police
officer who directed me to the other side of the Superdome. There I saw
about 400 people waiting for the doors to open at noon. I finally got
in the Dome around 3:00PM and found "choice" seats. No, they weren't on
the 50 yard line, but I had two seats to myself and was under the
overhang in case the roof blew off. Two other guys joined me in my
area. I think we were all happy to have the mutual support. Best I
could tell is they were Nawlins natives who were homeless and recovering
addicts.
I would estimate there were about 10,000 people inside the Dome by the
time the hurricane was supposed to hit on Monday morning. Everything
seemed to be orderly. An official made an announcement Sunday evening
about meals being served by section & people were appreciative. The
following two speakers could not be heard at all. The crowd consisted
of many homeless people, drug addicts, families with children and
ethnically was probably about 75 - 80% black, 15 - 20% anglo, and 5%
other. People seemed to be getting along fine and integrating well.
We all sat in stadium chairs that were padded, except for some people
who had planned better and brought mattresses and a couple even tents.
We lined up for food which took about 45 minutes. It was prepackaged
military rations with a pack inside that you add 2 ounces of water to
and it heats up the chemicals to warm your entry. It was all fine and I
was thankful to have that food and water. If one was a vegetarian one
would need to hunt around to find veggie packages but it was usually not
a problem.
Around 6:20AM was when the brunt of the hurricane seemed to come through
and the electricity went off. There were back up generators but we no
longer had air conditioning and only about 50% of the lighting. Two
panels of the roof of the dome blew off, each probably about 10 feet X
10 feet and some water was then getting in. Since the winds blew the
water horizontally there was not a huge direct downpour but those seated
in the open and to move. Eventually the water that did get in spread
throughout much of the inner latice of the Dome. With the exposed air,
you could definitely hear the storm and there were now some fears that
more or all of the roof might blow off. At this point one's imagination
can start to run wild. I would guess that the brunt of the storm lasted
for about 8 hours??? It was difficult to keep track of time if you
didn't have a watch. To keep busy or amused you could walk around the
hallways of the stadium but you were prohibited from going up to the 3rd
or 4th levels or outdoors. Still there were plenty of interesting
people to see who could easily have been on the Jerry Springer Show.
It was amazing though how many families were there with their children.
Prior to our entry there were Army National Guards present in the
building, frisking people and checking all our belongings before we had
entered as well as passing out food and water (2 - 3 times a day). I
don't think it was till Monday afternoon that I saw any military with
their AK-47s. The appearance of these were a bit unsettling to many of
us, but would later prove helpful. I believe it was Monday afternoon
that I first heard an officer say that he expected that riots might
break out on Tuesday. I kind of shrugged off his comment as being
paranoid. Hours later though, I was thinking somewhat along those same
lines. What was developing was a mini-society that was starting to
mimic William Goldings' classic book, "Lord of the Flies", about a group
of shipwrecked kids who form their own government and means to survive.
Tensions seemed to be rising, rumors and misinformation began to spread.
There was no longer any central communication from the organizers to the
residents that could have put people at ease. Simply announcements such
as "There is no need to worry. We have tons and tons of food and
water", would have gone far to easing some worries. I personally
decided at this point that this was going to be one of those times in my
life that I was going to be tested, to learn from the pain, and to grow
stronger from it all. More and more I viewed this situation as a
combination of a reality show consisting of Fear Factor, Survivor, The
Amazing Race, and of course, Lord of the Flies.
We knew that the #1 priority had become not to get us out, but search
and rescue of survivors, which made sense. More and more rescued people
poured in to the Dome. You heard horrific stories of people losing
family members of being up to their necks in the water before some
volunteer on a small boat saved their life. The worst you can imagine
you heard of. Our only contact with the outside world was through one
or two radio stations that people with boomboxes were playing but the
stations didn't have much information and were relying on people in the
community to report in.
Meal lines began to grow and instead of 45 minutes it was becoming an
hour to an hour and a half wait. People began cutting in line and
shoving. The military was beginning to lose control and was clearly
understaffed. Even though the military was in charge, they seemed to
not have any more information than us. And many of the Dome employees
and the military had lost everything they owned and didn't know the
status of their loved ones. We heard talk that we would be getting out
Tuesday and buses would vacate us. I can't remember how many times we
heard various false promises. After the hurricane very few cell phones
worked. Either there was no reception or towers were down or peoples'
batteries were dying. I managed to find one working one and offered a
woman $10. to call Keith in San Diego to let him know I had survived.
After hanging up I did regret not telling him at that time to please
alert all the media possible and my congressperson that a storm was
brewing inside and that I too was beginning to realize that hell was
going to break loose.
Food lines grew to 2-3 hour waits. There was little control over them
and shoving matches broke out. There were some people who were the
scum of the earth inside that Dome but the vast majority were good,
law-abiding, caring individuals of all nationalities and races. Still
we all knew that we had to get out of there soon as we were going stir
crazy. The toilets had all filled up with waste. I do not exaggerate
when I saw that every toilet on first and second floor was filled to the
rim with fecal matter. Urine permiated the floors and was tracked up
and down the hallways by thousands of people. What began as a place of
rescue was turning into a prison. We could not leave. We could not
escape the horrific odor of human waste that spread throughout the
building. People were smoking in the bathrooms. People on respirators
and with asthma had to endure this killing behavior of others. More
people poured in to the Dome and still no good communication other than
hearsay about yep, the busses were on the way.
We then heard that the levee had broke. We also heard that a man had
either been shoved or committed suicide inside the Dome. Rumors took
on a life of their own. We heard that a 10-12 year old girl had been
raped. Either the general assumption or the spoken word was that it
was a black man raping a white girl. Was this merely a reflection of
the general racism existing in America or was it fact? Then we heard
that he had raped two young girls. Then we heard he had either broken
their necks or slits their necks. Then we heard it was a white man on
a black girl who committed these atrocities. To this day I still don't
know what is true.
People usually left their belongings where they were seating when one
would go the bathroom or the food line. You would either trust your
neighbors or didn't really care because by this time you just wanted to
survive. I kept my wallet in my front pocket and my camera at all
times as they were my most valuable possessions. Everyone by Tuesday
morning was complaining about why people outside couldn't hear out
pleas. Why in the world was no one rescueing us? Why wasn't there
better planning? Why was the military so woefully understaffed? Why
did we believe we would run out of food and water? Why couldn't
someone pump or even dig out the fecal waste from the toilets? Why
hadn't the Federal government had thousands of busses lined up in
neighboring states waiting to come in and take us out? Why didn't the
medical facilities have medicine after the first day? Why couldn't the
military recreate the Vietnam airlift to save us? Why couldn't we even
get some toilet paper?
We all grew more frustrated and angrier and a first year high school
sociology student knew that even if someone was not of criminal mind,
the average person could only handle stress so much without falling into
the temptations of either becoming a looter or cutting in line or a liar
or freaking out. What was being created by the unpreparedness and then
slow response to this situation was a time bomb waiting to explode. I
later learned that during a less severe hurricane many years ago, there
was rioting that broke out in the Dome. Hadn't government officials
learned their lessons?
To keep busy one tried his/her best to sleep in the chairs. Or you
walked around or stood in the food line. The monotony was deadening. I
tried my best to amuse myself, look at the positive and tell jokes with
others. I knew that the worst thing was to hang out with negative
people or to dwell on the worst case scenario. I prepared myself
mentally of what I would do and what escape routes I would take if
things went crazy, but I did my best not to dwell on these things. I
was going to learn some important lessons about human nature and myself
from this experience one way or another damn it!!!! I chuckled to
myself when I realized that my friend Nancy Nguy and I had tried out for
the Amazing Race TV show and were not selected but in reality I was now
living it. Where was Nancy I thought to experience this "wonderful"
hellhole? I also laughed when I thought of others who may have joined
me on my vacation in New Orleans but decided they couldn't make it.
Would they have hated my guts had I talked them in to this adventure?
Ahh, the imagination is a wonderful and powerful tool.
On Tuesday I was approached by Lars and his friend. They were from
Denmark. They asked if I wanted to join in the group from the
Internation Hostel who were all sitting together. I thanked them but
said probably not. I still felt comfortable with my two boys from the
hood. Besides I didn't want to segregate even more than what existed.
A couple hours later I returned to my luggage and discovered that a few
pieces of my food were missing from inside the zipper pocket. At this
point I knew that Tim, one of the homeless guys had to have taken it.
Had he merely asked I would have shared. I didn't make a scene at this
point but simply told Tim and Kurt and I ran in to some friends from
California and was moving from section 149 to 113. They were cool with
that, no hard feelings. Days later I was to discover that Tim had not
stolen a thing from me. I had put that food in a different pocket.
Nevertheless, my mistake may have saved my life. And Lars from Denmark
may have save my life. And so many different things that ocurred may
have saved my life, but by this point I had no hope of the Federal
government saving my life.
I joined the International Group made up mainly of 20-30 year old
travelers from Britain, Australia, France, New Zealand, Thailand, China,
Taiwan, Canada and Haiti. Out of about 100 there were three Americans.
From appearance I would say that about 5 of the group were black, 5 were
Asian, 2 Hispanic, and the rest white. While I won't say we stood out
in the Dome, if it was better lit, we definitely would have. I still
had mixed feelings that we should not be creating our own island, so I
sat near the group but integrated myself with a black family on the
outside fringe area. After word of the rape the International Group
decided that the females in our group would be surrounded by the males
in our group. I thought this was a bit paranoid, but I agreed to
relocate slightly.
Late Tuesday a few people were starting to break into vending machines
and even to concession stands to steal ice. It wasn't total anarchy
but things were definitely sketchy. But the saving grace was that we
could go outside for fresh air. The military seemed to be just as
upset as all of us were over us being abandoned and not knowing if we'd
get out in 2 days or 2 weeks or would starve to death. Our intensity
of anger towards FEMA and the Administration understandably grew. We
truly believed that we might die because of inaction and lack of
planning.
Fortunately our group of 100 was saved by a Staff Sergeant Ogren to took
a special liking to us. I am thankful beyond belief for the work he
did in arranging to get us out. I do not know if he did this because
he liked us or he knew we were in danger or if it was racism or if he
realized that if one of the International students was raped or murdered
that would be a huge embarrassment for President Bush. I may never know
the motivation but I was happy to finally find out that we would be
somewhat secretly escorted out by armed military to a different
location. My mind filled with so many different thoughts. What right
did we have to leave when many of these people had families with them?
What right did we have to leave when we weren't even Orleanians? What
right did we have to leave? We felt for the people left behind. We
knew they were living in a hell. We cried for them internally but were
jubilant that we were leaving. We were told not to talk to anyone, not
to smile and to just walk in a single line. I felt we were being saved
by the Israeli army after being held hostage. We were told that a riot
could break out once others left behind caught on to our "favoritism".
We did make it out okay through some stressful moments.
As the Library is closing I have to cut the story short. Know that we
went to the basketball arena next where we helped with the "emergency
room" setup and the patients brought to that location. That was
incredibly sad, but we knew it was needed and brought us some peace.
The next day we were "smuggled" out to the Hyatt Hotel, where we
encountered more scarey moments where we thought we might die. It was
there, where about 25 members of the International group, mainly whites
stole beer from behind the bar. I heard a black woman from another
group say in anger, "Your group is filled with looters!" The words
struck and chord and were so so true. And the Lord of the Flies had
come to pass. Finally we made it out of the Hyatt under armed guard
after false hopes. We wrote on plywood inside the Lobby our thoughts.
Many of these involved our thoughts to the Federal Government and how
their inaction had truly almost lead to our deaths and positively led
to the mental illness and deaths of many others. There was zero
question about this point. On the way to Dallas the bus in front of us
overturned and one person died and 17 were injured. Our bus driver
saved people from that bus and was one of the many many heroes in all of
this. I have much more to say, but I have run out of time.
Treasure your loved ones. Be prepared for disaster. Know yourself.
Know what you are capable of.
That's the second time I've heard Lord of the Flies compared with this situation.
---
I wanted to say a HUGE thanks to all of you who expressed your caring
and concern in so many ways. And to many who I am blind copying who
were not aware I was in New Orleans, I wanted to share my story. I
hope to write more later, but my brain is one big blob of jambalaya.
And if you see me walking around in the daze, it's okay. I'm just
having flashbacks of being inside the Louisiana Superdome. ;-) You
may not care to read further. This is a warning that some of what I
will write is upsetting so stop now if easily offended.
I arrived Fri. 8/26 in New Orleans. On Sun. 8/28 I was awaiting word
from the New Orleans Mayor to see if the city was to be evacuated. The
moment he gave the order I hopped in a cab to go to Amtrak and
Greyhound. The cabbie said it looks like they're closed. I said no
way and had him drop me off. Sure enough both were. (I later learned
that both had closed on Saturday, 2 days before the hurricane. I also
learned that people were flown in to the airport on Saturday but not
informed that there would not be flights for them to leave on after
Saturday.) All rental cars were gone and no hotels or motels seemed to
be open.
I knew the Superdome was available for "special needs" people. This
meant medical needs, but I walked the block or two and spoke to a police
officer who directed me to the other side of the Superdome. There I saw
about 400 people waiting for the doors to open at noon. I finally got
in the Dome around 3:00PM and found "choice" seats. No, they weren't on
the 50 yard line, but I had two seats to myself and was under the
overhang in case the roof blew off. Two other guys joined me in my
area. I think we were all happy to have the mutual support. Best I
could tell is they were Nawlins natives who were homeless and recovering
addicts.
I would estimate there were about 10,000 people inside the Dome by the
time the hurricane was supposed to hit on Monday morning. Everything
seemed to be orderly. An official made an announcement Sunday evening
about meals being served by section & people were appreciative. The
following two speakers could not be heard at all. The crowd consisted
of many homeless people, drug addicts, families with children and
ethnically was probably about 75 - 80% black, 15 - 20% anglo, and 5%
other. People seemed to be getting along fine and integrating well.
We all sat in stadium chairs that were padded, except for some people
who had planned better and brought mattresses and a couple even tents.
We lined up for food which took about 45 minutes. It was prepackaged
military rations with a pack inside that you add 2 ounces of water to
and it heats up the chemicals to warm your entry. It was all fine and I
was thankful to have that food and water. If one was a vegetarian one
would need to hunt around to find veggie packages but it was usually not
a problem.
Around 6:20AM was when the brunt of the hurricane seemed to come through
and the electricity went off. There were back up generators but we no
longer had air conditioning and only about 50% of the lighting. Two
panels of the roof of the dome blew off, each probably about 10 feet X
10 feet and some water was then getting in. Since the winds blew the
water horizontally there was not a huge direct downpour but those seated
in the open and to move. Eventually the water that did get in spread
throughout much of the inner latice of the Dome. With the exposed air,
you could definitely hear the storm and there were now some fears that
more or all of the roof might blow off. At this point one's imagination
can start to run wild. I would guess that the brunt of the storm lasted
for about 8 hours??? It was difficult to keep track of time if you
didn't have a watch. To keep busy or amused you could walk around the
hallways of the stadium but you were prohibited from going up to the 3rd
or 4th levels or outdoors. Still there were plenty of interesting
people to see who could easily have been on the Jerry Springer Show.
It was amazing though how many families were there with their children.
Prior to our entry there were Army National Guards present in the
building, frisking people and checking all our belongings before we had
entered as well as passing out food and water (2 - 3 times a day). I
don't think it was till Monday afternoon that I saw any military with
their AK-47s. The appearance of these were a bit unsettling to many of
us, but would later prove helpful. I believe it was Monday afternoon
that I first heard an officer say that he expected that riots might
break out on Tuesday. I kind of shrugged off his comment as being
paranoid. Hours later though, I was thinking somewhat along those same
lines. What was developing was a mini-society that was starting to
mimic William Goldings' classic book, "Lord of the Flies", about a group
of shipwrecked kids who form their own government and means to survive.
Tensions seemed to be rising, rumors and misinformation began to spread.
There was no longer any central communication from the organizers to the
residents that could have put people at ease. Simply announcements such
as "There is no need to worry. We have tons and tons of food and
water", would have gone far to easing some worries. I personally
decided at this point that this was going to be one of those times in my
life that I was going to be tested, to learn from the pain, and to grow
stronger from it all. More and more I viewed this situation as a
combination of a reality show consisting of Fear Factor, Survivor, The
Amazing Race, and of course, Lord of the Flies.
We knew that the #1 priority had become not to get us out, but search
and rescue of survivors, which made sense. More and more rescued people
poured in to the Dome. You heard horrific stories of people losing
family members of being up to their necks in the water before some
volunteer on a small boat saved their life. The worst you can imagine
you heard of. Our only contact with the outside world was through one
or two radio stations that people with boomboxes were playing but the
stations didn't have much information and were relying on people in the
community to report in.
Meal lines began to grow and instead of 45 minutes it was becoming an
hour to an hour and a half wait. People began cutting in line and
shoving. The military was beginning to lose control and was clearly
understaffed. Even though the military was in charge, they seemed to
not have any more information than us. And many of the Dome employees
and the military had lost everything they owned and didn't know the
status of their loved ones. We heard talk that we would be getting out
Tuesday and buses would vacate us. I can't remember how many times we
heard various false promises. After the hurricane very few cell phones
worked. Either there was no reception or towers were down or peoples'
batteries were dying. I managed to find one working one and offered a
woman $10. to call Keith in San Diego to let him know I had survived.
After hanging up I did regret not telling him at that time to please
alert all the media possible and my congressperson that a storm was
brewing inside and that I too was beginning to realize that hell was
going to break loose.
Food lines grew to 2-3 hour waits. There was little control over them
and shoving matches broke out. There were some people who were the
scum of the earth inside that Dome but the vast majority were good,
law-abiding, caring individuals of all nationalities and races. Still
we all knew that we had to get out of there soon as we were going stir
crazy. The toilets had all filled up with waste. I do not exaggerate
when I saw that every toilet on first and second floor was filled to the
rim with fecal matter. Urine permiated the floors and was tracked up
and down the hallways by thousands of people. What began as a place of
rescue was turning into a prison. We could not leave. We could not
escape the horrific odor of human waste that spread throughout the
building. People were smoking in the bathrooms. People on respirators
and with asthma had to endure this killing behavior of others. More
people poured in to the Dome and still no good communication other than
hearsay about yep, the busses were on the way.
We then heard that the levee had broke. We also heard that a man had
either been shoved or committed suicide inside the Dome. Rumors took
on a life of their own. We heard that a 10-12 year old girl had been
raped. Either the general assumption or the spoken word was that it
was a black man raping a white girl. Was this merely a reflection of
the general racism existing in America or was it fact? Then we heard
that he had raped two young girls. Then we heard he had either broken
their necks or slits their necks. Then we heard it was a white man on
a black girl who committed these atrocities. To this day I still don't
know what is true.
People usually left their belongings where they were seating when one
would go the bathroom or the food line. You would either trust your
neighbors or didn't really care because by this time you just wanted to
survive. I kept my wallet in my front pocket and my camera at all
times as they were my most valuable possessions. Everyone by Tuesday
morning was complaining about why people outside couldn't hear out
pleas. Why in the world was no one rescueing us? Why wasn't there
better planning? Why was the military so woefully understaffed? Why
did we believe we would run out of food and water? Why couldn't
someone pump or even dig out the fecal waste from the toilets? Why
hadn't the Federal government had thousands of busses lined up in
neighboring states waiting to come in and take us out? Why didn't the
medical facilities have medicine after the first day? Why couldn't the
military recreate the Vietnam airlift to save us? Why couldn't we even
get some toilet paper?
We all grew more frustrated and angrier and a first year high school
sociology student knew that even if someone was not of criminal mind,
the average person could only handle stress so much without falling into
the temptations of either becoming a looter or cutting in line or a liar
or freaking out. What was being created by the unpreparedness and then
slow response to this situation was a time bomb waiting to explode. I
later learned that during a less severe hurricane many years ago, there
was rioting that broke out in the Dome. Hadn't government officials
learned their lessons?
To keep busy one tried his/her best to sleep in the chairs. Or you
walked around or stood in the food line. The monotony was deadening. I
tried my best to amuse myself, look at the positive and tell jokes with
others. I knew that the worst thing was to hang out with negative
people or to dwell on the worst case scenario. I prepared myself
mentally of what I would do and what escape routes I would take if
things went crazy, but I did my best not to dwell on these things. I
was going to learn some important lessons about human nature and myself
from this experience one way or another damn it!!!! I chuckled to
myself when I realized that my friend Nancy Nguy and I had tried out for
the Amazing Race TV show and were not selected but in reality I was now
living it. Where was Nancy I thought to experience this "wonderful"
hellhole? I also laughed when I thought of others who may have joined
me on my vacation in New Orleans but decided they couldn't make it.
Would they have hated my guts had I talked them in to this adventure?
Ahh, the imagination is a wonderful and powerful tool.
On Tuesday I was approached by Lars and his friend. They were from
Denmark. They asked if I wanted to join in the group from the
Internation Hostel who were all sitting together. I thanked them but
said probably not. I still felt comfortable with my two boys from the
hood. Besides I didn't want to segregate even more than what existed.
A couple hours later I returned to my luggage and discovered that a few
pieces of my food were missing from inside the zipper pocket. At this
point I knew that Tim, one of the homeless guys had to have taken it.
Had he merely asked I would have shared. I didn't make a scene at this
point but simply told Tim and Kurt and I ran in to some friends from
California and was moving from section 149 to 113. They were cool with
that, no hard feelings. Days later I was to discover that Tim had not
stolen a thing from me. I had put that food in a different pocket.
Nevertheless, my mistake may have saved my life. And Lars from Denmark
may have save my life. And so many different things that ocurred may
have saved my life, but by this point I had no hope of the Federal
government saving my life.
I joined the International Group made up mainly of 20-30 year old
travelers from Britain, Australia, France, New Zealand, Thailand, China,
Taiwan, Canada and Haiti. Out of about 100 there were three Americans.
From appearance I would say that about 5 of the group were black, 5 were
Asian, 2 Hispanic, and the rest white. While I won't say we stood out
in the Dome, if it was better lit, we definitely would have. I still
had mixed feelings that we should not be creating our own island, so I
sat near the group but integrated myself with a black family on the
outside fringe area. After word of the rape the International Group
decided that the females in our group would be surrounded by the males
in our group. I thought this was a bit paranoid, but I agreed to
relocate slightly.
Late Tuesday a few people were starting to break into vending machines
and even to concession stands to steal ice. It wasn't total anarchy
but things were definitely sketchy. But the saving grace was that we
could go outside for fresh air. The military seemed to be just as
upset as all of us were over us being abandoned and not knowing if we'd
get out in 2 days or 2 weeks or would starve to death. Our intensity
of anger towards FEMA and the Administration understandably grew. We
truly believed that we might die because of inaction and lack of
planning.
Fortunately our group of 100 was saved by a Staff Sergeant Ogren to took
a special liking to us. I am thankful beyond belief for the work he
did in arranging to get us out. I do not know if he did this because
he liked us or he knew we were in danger or if it was racism or if he
realized that if one of the International students was raped or murdered
that would be a huge embarrassment for President Bush. I may never know
the motivation but I was happy to finally find out that we would be
somewhat secretly escorted out by armed military to a different
location. My mind filled with so many different thoughts. What right
did we have to leave when many of these people had families with them?
What right did we have to leave when we weren't even Orleanians? What
right did we have to leave? We felt for the people left behind. We
knew they were living in a hell. We cried for them internally but were
jubilant that we were leaving. We were told not to talk to anyone, not
to smile and to just walk in a single line. I felt we were being saved
by the Israeli army after being held hostage. We were told that a riot
could break out once others left behind caught on to our "favoritism".
We did make it out okay through some stressful moments.
As the Library is closing I have to cut the story short. Know that we
went to the basketball arena next where we helped with the "emergency
room" setup and the patients brought to that location. That was
incredibly sad, but we knew it was needed and brought us some peace.
The next day we were "smuggled" out to the Hyatt Hotel, where we
encountered more scarey moments where we thought we might die. It was
there, where about 25 members of the International group, mainly whites
stole beer from behind the bar. I heard a black woman from another
group say in anger, "Your group is filled with looters!" The words
struck and chord and were so so true. And the Lord of the Flies had
come to pass. Finally we made it out of the Hyatt under armed guard
after false hopes. We wrote on plywood inside the Lobby our thoughts.
Many of these involved our thoughts to the Federal Government and how
their inaction had truly almost lead to our deaths and positively led
to the mental illness and deaths of many others. There was zero
question about this point. On the way to Dallas the bus in front of us
overturned and one person died and 17 were injured. Our bus driver
saved people from that bus and was one of the many many heroes in all of
this. I have much more to say, but I have run out of time.
Treasure your loved ones. Be prepared for disaster. Know yourself.
Know what you are capable of.
That's the second time I've heard Lord of the Flies compared with this situation.